Whether he's performing in concert or a Broadway musical, Mandy
Patinkin approaches his songs the way an actor tackles a new role. Each
song becomes a mini-drama, with the singer employing his wide-ranging voice
and ferocious intensity to transform himself into a character in the grip
of emotion.

With Mamaloshen ("Mother Tongue") he has found the ideal
marriage of singer and songs. The concert, at Broadway's Belasco Theater
following an engagement on the Lower East Side, lends itself beautifully to
his deep-immersion approach. The songs, performed in Yiddish (with an
occasional sprinkling of English), are tales of people caught up in moments
of struggle or bathing in the glow of nostalgia or filled with patriotism
for a New Land.

If Patinkin's histrionic way with a song has sometimes sent him
hurtling over the top in the past, in Mamaloshen it works
beautifully. Even for those of us who don't understand Yiddish, the songs
are deeply involving. (A bit of guidance is provided by projections of such
descriptive phrases as "A mother questions her daughter" and "A boy sells
cigarettes to survive the war").

Simply dressed in slacks and a collarless shirt (he quickly sheds his
jacket), Patinkin establishes an instant rapport with his audience as he
sings the lovely Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen ("Raisins and Almonds"), in
which, we're informed, "A mother rocks her child, wishes him everything."
The song is characteristic of the nostalgic ones that, for me at least, are
the most rewarding. Among others are the lilting Belz… ("Remembering
a little town called Belz") and Oyfn Pripetshik… ("Children learn
their ABC's at the fireplace").

Then there are the intensely dramatic songs, including
Papirosin (the one about the boy selling cigarettes to survive),
Motl Der Opreyter… ("A sweatshop worker struggles to support his
family") and Lid Fun Titanic ("A ship is lost at sea-hope
survives").

Interspersed with the drama are moments of humor, most notably in
Tsen Kopikes ("Ten Kopeks"). The song, about a guy who wants ten
cents to romance his girl, segues into playful Yiddish versions of a couple
of American pop songs. Patinkin uses one of them, The Hokey Pokey,
to get just about everyone in the audience to stand up for a bit of hokey
pokeying. There's some laughter as well in hearing Yiddish versions of such
familiar songs as the Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim Maria and
(in the final encore) Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg's Over the
Rainbow.

Patinkin gets invaluable assistance from his piano accompanist (Eric
Stern at the performance I attended) and a talented young violinist named
Saeka Matsuyama, who joins him for Der Alter Tzigayner ("The Old
Gypsy") and the encores.

Mamaloshen probably appeals most strongly to those people with
a knowledge of Yiddish and a yearning to hear again some of the sweet old
songs. But others may find themselves caught up in emotions that transcend
time and place.